Dedham girls lacrosse learning on the job

Tuesday

May 8, 2018 at 12:45 AM

Tom Fargo tfargo@wickedlocal.com

The first month of the season was both a blessing and a curse for the Dedham High girls lacrosse team.

On the one hand, a slew of weather postponements offered a team that features largely lacrosse neophytes some valuable extra preparation time early in the season. On the other, when the Marauders were able to get out on the field against an opponent, they did so in either brutal conditions, like losses to Norwood and Ashland, or talent mismatches, like defeats to traditional powers like Westwood and Dover-Sherborn.

Dedham finally got a chance to apply what it had learned last Wednesday down in Bellingham against a program on a similar level, and the results were encouraging despite a 10-7 loss to the Blackhawks.

“We were excited to play and it was a competitive, back-and-forth game, and the things that we have been working on showed,” said Dedham first-year coach Erin MacDonald.

The Marauders dropped to 0-6 on the season with a 17-2 loss to Medway. The Marauders have undergone a major reconstruction of their roster after the departure of a large senior class that was the core of last year’s team that went 6-13 and qualified for the tournament through the Sullivan Rule.

“We knew we were going to have inexperience players, kids that were coming out for the first time,” said MacDonald. “We have a lot of athletic ability, it’s just fine tuning the lacrosse skills. Passing and receiving have been a struggle for us, being able to control the ball. You can’t do anything if you can’t pass or are not confident receiving and controlling the ball, so we have been really focusing in that the last week and half.”

Junior Madison Rella has been the main source of offense for Dedham thus far, scoring four times against Bellingham and accounting for both goals against Medway. She mans the midfield with sophomore Ciara Heffernan, who has blossomed this season after being a midseason JV call-up a year ago, and junior Bridgette Crowley, a tremendous athlete who is new to the sport.

Sophomores Cara Derby and Audrey Morse and freshman Alanna Lowney also scored for the Marauders in the Bellingham loss. They are part of an attack group that also includes sophomore Meg Keane and senior captain Monica Lafferty, who has made her way back onto the field after missing last year with an ACL tear.

Junior Jenna Hache is the defensive anchor, and she is joined in the back by junior Erin Dwyer, sophomore Callie Turner and freshman Maille Crowley, with sophomore Debbie Blioumba seeing frequent action as well. Turner has also handled much of the draw duties.

“Throughout the field there are girls that are stepping up, we just have to do a better job as a whole,” said MacDonald.

An area that Dedham is hoping to solidify as the season moves forward is in goal, which has been a revolving door in the early going. Lacking a natural goalie on the roster, the Marauders went through a number of volunteer candidates in the first few games but hopes to have settled on a tandem of sophomores Mikayla Madden and Courtney Warjas, with classmate Allison Farnham beginning to work with that duo as well.

The downside of all those early postponement is a stacked schedule for the rest of the season as beginning with Wednesday’s home contest with Hopkinton, Dedham will play 10 times in 21 days down the stretch, with a handful of realistic opportunities still remaining to challenge for its first win.

“We knew what we coming into, we are just trying to focus on improving every day and taking away something from each game,” said MacDonald.